Marine Biology Laboratory, University of Mons, 20 Place du Parc, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
Mar Drugs. 2010 Jan 21;8(1):173-89. doi: 10.3390/md8010173.
To avoid predation, holothuroids produce feeding-deterrent molecules in their body wall and viscera, the so-called saponins. Five tropical sea cucumber species of the family Holothuriidae were investigated in order to study their saponin content in two different organs, the body wall and the Cuvierian tubules. Mass spectrometry techniques (MALDI- and ESI-MS) were used to detect and analyze saponins. The smallest number of saponins was observed in Holothuria atra, which contained a total of four congeners, followed by Holothuria leucospilota, Pearsonothuria graeffei and Actinopyga echinites with six, eight and ten congeners, respectively. Bohadschia subrubra revealed the highest saponin diversity (19 congeners). Saponin mixtures also varied between the two body compartments within a given animal. A semi-quantitative approach completed these results and showed that a high diversity of saponins is not particularly correlated to a high saponin concentration. Although the complexity of the saponin mixtures described makes the elucidation of their respective biological roles difficult, the comparisons between species and between body compartments give some clues about how these molecules may act as predator repellents.
为了避免被捕食，海参在其体壁和内脏中产生了摄食抑制分子，即所谓的皂苷。本研究调查了 5 种热带海参科（Holothuriidae）物种，以研究它们在两种不同器官（体壁和Cuvier 管）中的皂苷含量。采用质谱技术（MALDI 和 ESI-MS）进行检测和分析皂苷。在 H. atra 中观察到的皂苷数量最少，总共含有 4 种同系物，其次是 H. leucospilota、Pearsonothuria graeffei 和 Actinopyga echinites，分别含有 6、8 和 10 种同系物。Bohadschia subrubra 显示出最高的皂苷多样性（19 种同系物）。在给定动物的两个体腔之间，皂苷混合物也存在差异。半定量方法补充了这些结果，并表明皂苷的多样性与浓度并不特别相关。尽管所描述的皂苷混合物的复杂性使得阐明它们各自的生物学作用变得困难，但物种间和体腔间的比较为这些分子如何作为捕食者驱避剂提供了一些线索。
